Hypertext systems are widely used. One particular hypertext system, the World Wide Web (“Web”), provides global access over public packet-switched networks to a large number of hypertext documents. The Web has grown to contain a staggering number of documents, and the number of documents continues to increase. The Web has been estimated to contain several hundred million pages and is expected to expand rapidly over the foreseeable future.
The number of documents available through the Web is so large that to use the Web in a practical way almost always requires a search service, search engine, or similar service. The search engines use “spider” programs that “crawl” to Web servers around the world, locate documents, index the documents, and follow hyperlinks in those documents to yet other documents. In one mode of operation, a user provides a search query to the search engine, which locates information in the index about responsive documents and displays a set of search results that satisfy the query.
In another mode of operation, the index may be organized in the form of a hierarchical directory that is structured using a taxonomy of categories. The search engine displays a top-level set of categories from the taxonomy. Each category is hyperlinked to one or more subordinate categories that are associated with that category. Each category may also be associated with one or more documents that fall within that category. In that case, the search engine also displays a list of the documents. A user may browse the taxonomy and the underlying directory by selecting successive categories until a category of interest is reached, or may select a document associated with a particular category. This mode of operation is available using the search engine “Disney's Internet Guide” (DIG), which is accessible online at www.dig.com.
In this field, separate enterprises or companies may own and operate the search engine and the technology that is used to create and manage the underlying directory (the “master directory”). Different search engine operators may wish to provide a taxonomy to their end users that is different from the standard taxonomy that is reflected by the master directory. Also, various search engine operators may wish to classify a particular document in a category that is different from that in which it is classified in the master directory. Thus, there is a need to enable different search engine operators to establish different, customized underlying directories.
A search engine operator with a customized directory, however, normally will still want to receive updates to the master directory issued by the owner of the directory technology. Thus, there is a need to integrate the updates into the customized directory in a way that does not override or disrupt the customizations that are reflected in the customized directory.
There is also a need for a system or mechanism that provides a convenient way to create and store a custom directory based on a master directory, in which the custom directory has a custom taxonomy that is different from the taxonomy of the master directory.
There is also a need for such as system or mechanism in which the custom taxonomy classifies documents in different categories or according to custom judgments that differ from or conflict with corresponding judgments in the master directory.
There is also a need to integrate the updates into the customized directory in a way that does not override or disrupt the custom judgments that are reflected in the customized directory.